This is mostly notes for my own nefarious, wedding-cake-making purposes, so I’m going to put most of it under a cut. But if you enjoy reading the convoluted workings of my brain when trying to calculate food and allergy things, by all means, click here…
Posted in Special occasions, Writing about cooking
Tagged planning posts, wedding cakes
I was hoping to write more here while I was on holidays, but the combination of my usual December activities, plus confectionery, plus the funeral, all followed up with several days of drainingly hot weather have left me more exhausted than I could have imagined. The notion that I might, at some point, not be tired doesn’t even seem possible.
Still, tomorrow is a Shakespeare evening, and having been completely uninspired all week, I’ve decided to simply celebrate the last of Shakespeare’s Italian plays (we still have Coriolanus, of course, but that is Roman, which is a whole different cuisine) by doing a proper Italian-style feast in the manner of my Nonna or my aunts.
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
Posted in baking, bread, food memories, Italian, Shakespeare cooking, Writing about cooking
Tagged insanity, nonna, pizza, planning posts, recipes, shakespeare
We’re doing Pericles tomorrow, which is basically Shakespeare’s Ancient World Road Trip play, complete with Deus Ex Machina, riddles about incest (and really, you’d think that any self-respecting Evil Overlord would realise that if you are sleeping with your daughter, you probably shouldn’t ask all her prospective suitors to solve a riddle whose answer is “The King is sleeping with his daughter”), people dying and being miraculously revived, people disappearing and being miraculously united, and (my personal favourite) the heroine so virtuous that when she is sold to a brothel she converts all the patrons to virtue and chastity.
You can see why it was a hit in its time…
Anyway, since Pericles spends the play wandering all around Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, and I think North Africa (shedding allegedly dead loved ones at every port), I decided that tomorrow should be a Middle Eastern feast. With a few random non Middle-Eastern bits in deference to various allergies and one or two puns I couldn’t resist, though this play didn’t give me too much scope for that (I’m waiting for another line like ‘them that do make trifles of their eyes’ – let me tell you, I had a blast catering that one. And Titus Andronicus had a certain macabre charm in the catering – anyone for pie?).
The menu – for ten, though I strongly suspect I will be making a lot of scientists very happy on Monday… Continue reading
Mostly in pictures, but also a public service announcement: it turns out that there is a very good reason why it’s well-nigh impossible to find a recipe for crystallised orange flowers. Turns out they look and smell absolutely wonderful for … Continue reading
Probably the most time-consuming part of making wedding cupcakes is figuring out the logistics. Continue reading
Two of my lovely scientists are getting married next Tuesday. The wedding is being organised very much at the last minute, because they are heading overseas to visit family and have the baby christened the week after.
And I get to make the wedding cake!
(because naturally my response to someone saying “We’re getting married next week!” is “Can I make the wedding cake?”)
Someone in my workplace has been pruning their rosemary bush, so there were big branches of rosemary stacked on the bench of the Tea Room, dark green and aromatic, a gift to the hopeful cook.
I grabbed four big branches. My office smells like heaven…
I know exactly what I’ll be doing with them – big, woody rosemary branches make wonderful skewers for kebabs, and I have those beautiful chicken breasts and tenderloins just crying out to be marinated for tonight’s dinner. I think I’ll keep it simple, and let my ingredients speak for themselves – I have white wine, really good olive oil, lemons and garlic for the marinade; I have the aforementioned dried cherries and almonds which will be beautiful in a jewelled pilaf with dried apricots and pistachios; I have home-made yoghurt for a sauce, and maybe my garden will yield me some mint and parsley and nasturtiums and rocket for a nice, herby salad.
I’m hungry already…
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